Thursday, September 22, 2005

Roberts and the Pentagon

Quickly, here are two items from Democracy Now! that Mike and I both felt you should be aware of:

More Dems Come Out Against Roberts (Democracy Now!)The battle continues over the confirmation of President Bush's nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, as more prominent Democrats have made their voting intentions public ahead of today's vote. Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy say they will vote against Roberts, while Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy says he will support Roberts. Earlier this week, Minority Leader Harry Reid said he would vote no. Meanwhile, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, is calling on President Bush to delay nominating a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Specter said he talked to Justice O'Connor about staying on the high court and that "She's prepared to do that'' through the court's term ending in June. But Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he urged Bush to submit a name to the Senate right away.GAO: Pentagon Has No Idea How Much War Costs (Democracy Now!)A new report from the Government Accountability Office has found that the Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the so-called war on terror. The GAO says this limits Congress's ability to oversee the war spending. The Defense Department has reported spending $191 billion since the September 11th attacks. The report says , "Neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent."

This is "quickly" because Rebecca's here. I had to see patients today. She flew here and we're flying to D.C. together. She wants to grab something quick to eat on the way to the airport so this is a quickie. But thank you to everyone who wrote such nice e-mails about what I posted yesterday.